Chosen By the Pack

1

BILLIE’S POV

Icouldn't stop looking in the rear-view mirror. Paranoia well and truly had a tight grip on my chest, and it wasn't letting go––not that I could blame it. I mean, this was the first time, in a very long time, that it wasn't misplaced.

"Fucking Project Hammond!" I muttered to myself as I leaned over to glance at the back seat. "Coming back to haunt me now."

I'd always been proud of my career––serving my country in the Navy Seals was a career path I’d chosen happily, and to move forward with as well. There wasn't a day of my time in the Navy Seals where I wasn’t proud of the work I was doing. It was all for the greater good, keep my country and my people safe...

But if I'd known that one day the secret black ops mission I'd taken part in while in Russia would come back to bite me on the ass, maybe I wouldn't have been so confident. Especially when it wasn't just me who was going to be affected by this.

"Poor kid." Luckily, Joey was sleeping in the back seat, but that still didn't stop me from feeling bad about everything. At six years old, he had been quite happy with our New York life. He had settled into school and was actively enjoying it. I hated that I had to pull him out of that life to head to Denver.

But it was that, or risk his life, and there was no way I would risk my baby boy's life. Not a chance. I left the military because I wanted to create a safer life for him, and now that was ruined. All because of a 'whistle blower' who thought it acceptable to put the details of everyone involved in Project Hammond online, exposing classified intel, including names and addresses.

I might never have found this out as I didn’t have an online presence. That whole debacle might have just passed me by had it not been for my prior comrades dying one by one in mysterious circumstances, gruesome circumstances in some cases. But the deaths were very obvious homicides, and it was clear that people were coming for us, coming for me, and I couldn't risk it.

Perhaps, once upon a time, I would have thought I could fight back. I might have arrogantly assumed that I could take them all down, solo, but of course, this wasn't about me. This was about Joey.

I hoped that he would understand that one day. Sure, he was upset about leaving New York now, but surely a time would come when he would realize this was all for his own good. I hoped he didn't resent me forever.

"Kids are adaptable," I reminded myself. "He will be fine. He'll start a new school, and everything will be just fine. It just has to be okay?"

Urgh! This was one of those situations where I had a feeling that no matter what I said to try and convince myself, nothing would match up to the danger I knew was coming our way. No amount of words would soothe my worries away. Nothing about this felt good...

Wait!All of a sudden, something caught my eyes. What is that?

My heart began pounding heavily against my rib cage, my breaths coming in short and ragged. The panic that threatened to consume me before now flooded me. There was a truck behind me, one that didn't make me feel good. No one knew what I was doing, no one knew where I was going, but I still couldn't feel safe.

I thought about my squad partner, Gareth, about the way he was run over by a car repeatedly. His body was absolutely crushed in the road, even the hardened New York police were shook by the scene. I swallowed hard, wondering if that was going to be me.

"Fuck!" I hissed to myself desperately. "Oh God, no. No, no, no. Holy shit."

Where would I go? What would I do? How the hell was I going to get away from that truck and keep myself safe? Keep Joey safe too? My brain was absolutely screaming at me to get out of this situation in any way I could.

Lights glimmered up ahead, flooding me with relief. I didn't know if being around other people would keep me alive, but it might save Joey. I'd been trying to accept that I might not come out of this alive––not that it was a simple thing to come to terms with––but Joey... I had to keep him safe.

"Shit, it's a gas station," I whispered to myself, my voice shaking almost as much as my body was. "Let's hope it's open twenty-four seven."

I kinda thought that driving in the dark was a good idea because it would help me move about in secret. I wanted Joey to sleep through most of the drive as well, but now I wasn't so sure. It made this truck, which was definitely fucking speeding towards me, that much scarier. It took every ounce of self-control that I had not to slam my foot down on the gas to get us away from this vehicle.

"Don't freak out!" I whispered to myself, even though my fingers were gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles had turned white. "It's going to be fine. Any minute now, it will be fine..."

I thought I might throw up. I was honestly on the verge of completely losing my shit. I just couldn't handle these bastards catching up to me. Russians, I assumed. It had to be, right? They were coming for revenge, and they were fucking serious about their revenge. I was one of the last people alive who was involved in Project Hammond, and I was scared that I would get it worse than everyone else... not that I could even picture what that might look like. It was going to fucking hurt though, that was for sure.

I had hoped reaching the neon-glowing lights of the gas station, getting to a public place, would make me feel better, but it didn't. I darted my eyes back, and while I couldn't see the truck right away, my gut instinct told me they were still coming. I could just feel it. I needed to do something… fast.

"Joey." I reached back and shook my little angel from his sleep. I hated doing this when he looked like he was resting well and dreaming about something beautiful, but this was a life or death thing. "Joey, you need to wake up."

"Urgh, nurgh," he groaned, basically batting me away. It was almost as if this was his first day of school after a long summer vacation, and he wasn't ready to get up and prepare for school. But this wasn't the time where he could have five more minutes of shuteye.

"Joey, seriously, we need to go inside. We need to use the bathroom."

Oh my God! Headlights.

The truck was coming. I couldn't wait any longer. I slipped out of the car and whipped around to the back of the vehicle. I unclipped Joey's seat belt before he could even open those little eyes of his.

"Joey, we have to... to go," I stammered, tripping over my words as I did.

"Mommy, what's happening?" he murmured. I lifted him out of his seat and held onto him over my shoulder. "Mommy, where are we going? I'm sleeping."

"I know, baby." Oh fuck, the truck had pulled up to a gas pump. I needed to get inside now. If those assholes had guns then we were screwed. "But we need to..."

"Are we at our new house yet?" I didn't answer him, I headed inside as quickly as I could manage without making it obvious that I was running. "Mommy, can you put me in my new bed because I am really tired."

"We're just at a gas station." I struggled to push the door open, but I just about managed it. "We're just going to the bathroom, okay?"

Oh fuck! There wasn't just a truck. There was a motorcycle as well. Shit, more than one person. I was screwed. I paused for a second, just to see a big man exit the truck with a dark pony tail hanging down his back. He looked scary, like he would happily murder me in front of the gas station attendant.

"Is there a bathroom key?" I demanded from the guy standing behind the counter. He blinked at me sleepily. "I need to get into the bathroom now."

He sighed heavily, like it was a massive inconvenience, and walked across the counter to get the keys. But he definitely wasn't moving fast enough for my liking.

"I need you to hurry," I told him sharply. "My son needs to go now."

He didn't give a shit. Of course he didn't. Why would he? But I banged my knuckles on the counter a couple of times to hurry him along as much as I could.

"Here we are, Miss." I ignored his attitude. "Don't be long."

Oh, whatever. Normally, I would have given him some lip back, but I just needed to get inside the bathroom. Sure, those men knew where I was now, and they would easily find me, whether I was in the bathroom or not, but I just needed to get in there for that added layer of protection. For Joey, more than me. I had to do whatever I could.

The gas station attendant knows about Joey,I reasoned with myself. He will help him in case anything happens to me.

I would have much preferred to have someone a little more trustworthy that I could rely on, but whatever. I didn't exactly have any choice in the matter, did I?

"Okay, Joey, we're here," I whispered to my boy. "So, I'm going to get you locked in somewhere safe for the moment, okay?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, his eyes barely open. "Where?"

"In this bathroom." I unlocked the door and pushed my way inside. There were a number of stalls, thank goodness. "Now I'm sure by now you must need to use the toilet, so if you just go in here." I put him down on the floor and rested my hands on both his shoulders. The confusion in his eyes made my heart bleed. "Just stay in there until I say it's time to come out, okay?"

"Even when I've finished using this toilet?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Even then. Just let me tell you when it's safe, okay?"

I kissed him on the cheek, desperately praying that this wouldn't be the last chance I got to do so. While children were resilient to a lot of things, I wasn't totally convinced that being stuck in a gas station bathroom while his mother was killed was something that Joey would recover from easily. Oh God, I couldn't stand it.

"I just have some things that I need to do, okay?" I whispered desperately. "Just stay here, keep that door locked, and I will let you know when you can come out." I hugged him tight and kissed the top of his head. "Love you."

Once Joey was locked away in that stall, I paced up and down, shaking my hands anxiously. I ended up heading over to one of the sinks to splash water on my face to try and steady myself, to calm myself down as much as I could. I'd faced dangerous situations like this before as a Navy Seal, but I'd never had my son in the firing line. The emotions were likely to crush me, to cause me to make mistakes, and I really didn't want that. This was the most important fight of my life.

"You can do this," I whispered to my very unsure reflection in the dirty, greasy mirror. "You can do this. You have to. You have no choice in the matter."

Footsteps caught my attention. They were coming, someone was coming. I turned to face the door, bracing myself in an attack position, trying my hardest to ignore my racing heart. This was a mess––I hated every second of it. All I could do now was prevent it from getting any worse.

I wasn't about to give these men a chance. Especially because I knew that there were at least two of them, and only one of me. So the second the bathroom door opened even a crack, I attacked. I lurched forward and punched, putting all my body weight behind it. I fought with every ounce of my being, giving it my all.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The guy didn't try to fight back, much to my surprise. He held up his hands defensively, just trying to stop me from attacking. "Stop, Billie, stop. Just give me a moment to explain. Don't come at me like this..."

He knew my name? How the hell did he know my name? Well, I suppose from my online profile or whatever the hell he had on me. But it was also a little weird that he didn't sound Russian at all. This was not what I was expecting...

"We were sent here to help you." Yeah that wasn't going to be enough to stop me from attacking. I didn't believe him one bit. "Stark Light sent us."

Wait. I staggered back. "Stark Light?"

"Right." The guy raked his fingers through his dirty blond hair as his dark irises lit up. "Stark Light, from RedEye Security. He said you're going to need us."

I narrowed my eyes at him and rested my hands on my hips. There was no way I would let my guard down that easily. "What's the passcode?"

His expression slackened for a moment, and my fists rose back up again. If he had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned passcodes, then the fight was back on. I wouldn't be able to trust anything that he said to me.

"Oh, Aegis Cachet. That's the current one, right?"

My fists fell down. So, it seemed he knew that much. "Who are you?"

He smiled, twisting up the nasty looking scar across his face some more. "My name is Phoenix. Stark has been keeping an eye on you and your current WikiLeaks situation. He's been waiting for permission to protect the other members of Project Hammond, but hasn't been able to get it. So, in typical Stark fashion, he's decided to move forward with it anyway because he can't stand to see anyone else killed."

I couldn't stop a small smile from spreading across my face. That was typical of Stark, he didn't always do what he was supposed to, but he did always get shit done.

"Okay, so he's sent you to protect me?" I cocked my head curiously to one side. "Where does he want me to go? Because I have a plan in mind..."

Phoenix shrugged helplessly. "I think we both know that any plan you have isn’t as good as the one Stark has. It's better not to fight it at all."

I sighed heavily. I could try and fight it, I could kick off and really cause a fuss, but what good would it do? Why fight someone who actually cared about me? Stark was looking out for me, and I hadn't even asked him to. And that kind of generosity, especially at a time like this, would be hard to come by if I decided to refuse his offer and handle this alone.

"Okay, fine." I held up my hands in defeat. "Hold on a moment."

I banged on the door and asked Joey to let me in. He didn't respond at first, which saddened me––it meant he had heard too much, and he was probably scared. But eventually, Joey knew that he needed to let me in, so he did.

I scooped him up in my arms and hugged him tight, trying my hardest to reassure him silently that everything was going to be okay. Of course, even with Stark's protection I couldn't be certain that we'd be safe, but following Stark’s plan would give us a much better chance. Joey was just going to have to trust me as much as he could.

"We're going," I whispered to my boy. "It's going to be okay."

Outside the bathroom, the guy with the ponytail was waiting for us. Up close, he had a much friendlier face than I gave him credit for when I stared at him across the gas station parking lot. Now that I knew they weren’t a threat to us, I could see there was something warm and inviting about his features.

"Whoa, Phoenix!" He laughed as he ran his eyes over his buddy. "I told you not to go in there alone, didn't I? Billie wasn't going to be intimidated, and it looks like she got some good shots in. Your lip is all busted up. That's a nasty cut, buddy.”

Phoenix glowered at him, and I couldn't help but laugh with relief. I was just so grateful that these guys were here to offer protection. I did not want to fight really––not when I was just trying to escape with my life intact.

"Grant, by the way." The guy reached out and shook my hand. There was a certain sweetness to his gesture. "Nice to meet you at last, Billie. Before we go on from here, there are some things we need to talk about. Such as getting rid of your car, your cell phone, your electronic devices, you know?"

I chuckled loudly. "I'm in a rental car, booked under a different name, and I don't have anything that can be tracked with me. Didn't Stark tell you? Or at the very least, give you my file? I'm not a rookie. This isn't my first rodeo. I know electronics are the enemy of someone trying to hide. I'm no fool."

Grant smiled, clearly impressed. "Okay, that's good. I'm glad to hear it. That makes our life a whole lot easier. So, I guess we just need to get to our safe house."

Hmm, a safe house. That was either going to be a really good thing or something terrible. But because Stark Light was involved with this, I was going to put some faith into these guys for now. A safe house would mean that Stark would be there, right? So, I could speak to him, face to face, and find out about his plan to keep me and my son safe.

"Let's get a move on then," I replied with a lop-sided smile. At least I would have these guys around me on the road as well, so I wasn't alone. Joey was going to be okay––whether I would be or not was a different matter. "I want to get to this safe house sooner rather than later."